Painting Around Trim and Crown Moulding

Get tips on how to paint around trim and crown moulding. Find out how a putty knife can be your friend when it comes to painting around the trim.

LESLIE: Alex in California listens to The Money Pit on KSRO. And you’ve got a painting question. What can we do for you?

ALEX: I’ve been painting again (laughing) and I’m messing up again. And I’ve tried the blue tape, I have tried the guides, I’ve tried the little brushes. And so, painting around trim and crown molding … how do you get that nice, fine line?

LESLIE: Well, here’s a trick of the trade. What you do is, once you lay the tape – and sometimes I use a putty knife to run over the tape just to make sure it’s really flat and down and exactly as sticky as I need it. And then, I take the same color paint that I’ve either used as my base coat or if I’m using it to cover some trim work, molding, I’ll use that same color paint and run a bead of that paint over that edge of that tape. And the reason I do that is because it seals the paint to the tape so there’ll be no bleeding. And if there’s any bleeding, it’s the same color that you’ve already used so you won’t even notice it. Takes a little bit of extra work but you’ll be so much happier.

ALEX: What if you’re … you have wood trim and you want to cover the wood trim so you don’t have any bleeding from the wall onto the wood trim?

LESLIE: Then definitely make sure you put the tape on and use a putty knife to make sure that it’s really, really secure on there.

TOM: Good luck with that. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.